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Food Desert and Weight Outcome: Disentangling Confounding Mechanisms

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Listed:
  • Zeng, Di
  • Thomsen, Michael R.
  • Nayga, Rodolfo M. Jr.

Abstract

Food deserts are increasingly considered as a potential cause of overweight and obesity, yet existing literature is largely inconclusive in part due to the infeasibility of sorting out multiple confounding mechanisms from a purely empirical perspective. This article investigates the hypothesized causality in a rational-choice framework, where the individual chooses how much to patronize a distant supermarket and/or a nearby convenience store, broadly defined, and the weight outcome depends on this choice. Results suggest that neither limited supermarket access nor low income, the key features of food deserts, would determine the weight outcome, which is also affected by individual preferences as well as time and monetary costs associated with grocery shopping. Parametric conditions under which varying effects on weight occur are further derived to elicit policy implications

Suggested Citation

  • Zeng, Di & Thomsen, Michael R. & Nayga, Rodolfo M. Jr., 2015. "Food Desert and Weight Outcome: Disentangling Confounding Mechanisms," 2016 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting, January 3-5, 2016, San Francisco, California 212813, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:assa16:212813
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.212813
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Keywords

    Consumer/Household Economics; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Food Security and Poverty;
    All these keywords.

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